The representation of sustainability within popular culture

By Cecilia [dot] von_arnold [at] lucsus [dot] lu [dot] se (Cecilia von Arnold) - published 21 December 2020

As part of the Sustainability and Popular culture course in the master programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science at Lund University (LUMES), students have created a series of videos analysing the representation of sustainability within popular culture. The videos examines issues such as ecofeminism, urban gardening and narratives for a flight free future.

The Sustainability and Popular culture course in the LUMES programme aims to provide a background necessary to analyze sustainability discourses that are manifested in cultural understandings of nature and the environment. One of the goal of the course is to make students examine series of case studies associated with popular culture of sustainability such as sustainable fashion, food, political campaigns and advertisement and critically analyze the way they represent sustainability. A special focus is given to visual methodologies such as the use of videos to encourage the students to think how visual data could be utilized as tools in creating arenas for public involvement and debate within sustainability.

In the autumn 2020, the students were given an assignment to visualize, present and discuss sustainability topics in a 3-5 minutes short video.

Student videos from the course Sustainability and Popular culture

All videos are made by LUMES students (batch 23) in the framework of the Popular Culture and Sustainability Course 2020.

Next Flight: Cancelled - Narratives for a Flight Free Future

The environmental impact of flying has received increasing attention from society and the media in recent years. This short video briefly outlines two narratives to reduce air travel, one of flight shaming and one of encouragement, alongside personal and scientific insights.

Is urban gardening a political act?

This video explain the roots of the urban gardening practices and discuss it from a Gramscian perspective.

Your favorite influencer is not an ecofeminist

Eco-gender gap? Social media and gendered sustainability. This video explain the increasing impact of sustainability markets online and the ways in which this links to eco-gender gap.

Reflections from the students

- The assignment encouraged us to communicate theoretical knowledge in a visual way with practical examples, and we got to learn and practice new skills.

- In order to do the video we had to go out of our comfort zone and the classroom, and we were forced to engage with the society either via interviews or via short fieldwork.

Watch more videos form LUCSUS and LUMES on our Youtube channel.